Echelon
by RiverSideOtter
Summary: AU  John Egbert has just started high school and made some new friends.When animal attack his school, a strange white dog gives him the ability to transform into Heir of Breath. Causing him to take a magical ride to save the world form an alien race.
1. A view of yet to come

There is noise all around as explosions and shouting can be heard from every direction. Despite the strong sense of grey, the area is awash with colour.

A human boy stands in the middle of all this, dressed in blue. His clothes are torn and smeared in blood, not just his own. Staring ahead of him, he tightens the grip on his weapon, a large overly colourful but powerful hammer. He regards the one in front of him. She was much taller than him, wild and long hair sweeping behind her with a pair of long orange and yellow horns rising out of their raven-coloured nest. She holds a double ended trident loosely in one hand, shifting her weight, her pink trimmed black cat suit catching some light and shimmering at the young boy before her.

Frowning, the dark haired boy readies his stance, prepared to charge her.

"You know, we don't have to do this. You can just... You know, stop trying to take over our planet and be like nice instead."

"Do not think you can tell me what to do, human. The thought of you all under my control just makes me shiver with glubbing joy."

The tall grey-skinned woman's voice is filled with a cold pleasure, it makes the boy uneasy, however he is resolved in the plan his friends had thought up. Calling up the wind he lifts himself off the ground slightly, raising the hammer as he hurtles towards the woman.

"Zillihoo stri-"

"Life's hold!"

The boys eyes widen.


	2. New School, New Friends

_AUTHOR NOTE: _  
>This Homestuck AU fic takes on a magical girlboy slant to things. The kids have never played Sburb and know nothing about the Trolls. As of yet I have no idea how many chapters this will be, but unlike my last fics which are still unfinished I know everything that's going to happen this time. So now that I got your curiousity going with "A View Yet to Come" Let's take it back to the start, shall we? 

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter One - New School, New Friends.<strong>

It was an important day. It was John Egbert's first day of high school. The reason he was so excited was not just because it meant a chance to make new friends, but it also meant so many new chances to increase what he called his 'Pranksters Gambit'. And in high school there were always new and interesting ways to play tricks on others, including using the old methods he'd adapted from elementary school onwards.

After an attempt at a quick farewell, which his dad managed to turn it into a speech about his son's coming of age, John was quickly out the door and walking down to the bus stop.

The school campus was buzzing with excitement and activity. School clubs were handing out flyers and sign up sheets were everywhere, including on one boy, for the schools various sports teams as well as the cheerleaders. Of which there were many flitting about the grounds.

After making his way through the insanity to he made it to his first class of the day. English. Sitting a row back from the front, the bespeckled boy looked around the room at the other students. For the most part they looked just excited as him, he did take note however, that the girl who sat at the desk neck to him looked little in the way of enthused. Her chin length blonde hair was kept away from her face with a white head band. Her clothes were a simple tee shirt and skirt. Both white, though John was sure he could see some purple on the front. Her elbow was on the desk and her head lent against her palm as she looked off into space with the most practiced boredom.

He continued to look at her, unaware that he had been staring at her a while. But he just couldn't get past how bored she looked on her first day of high school ever. The girl did seem to notice and looked at him slowly, John blinked when he saw her face properly, staring even more. There was something about her eyes, they were almost lilac in color and he just couldn't look away for a moment.

"I get the feeling that I should enquire if there was something you want from me, as you have been staring at me for longer than social constructs deem comfortable."

She looked him in the eye without any compunction, and her features were fine, but carefully neutral.

"What? Uh? Sorry, you just looked really bored. And it made me curious and then you looked at me and I saw your eyes. Wow, they're pretty vibrant, you know."

He gave a little nervous chuckle. She raised a delicate eyebrow at him, her expression otherwise unchanged.

"Oh, flirting already? That is very bold of you on the first day."

"I'm flirting? Sorry, I didn't mean to. I've just never seen anyone with eyes like that before."

"Admittedly, I feel the need to concur. Your eyes are a very extraordinary blue."

"Really? Well, thank you. I didn't think they were anything special."

"At the very least they are worth remarking on."

"Is that another compliment?"

"Something akin to one, I suppose."

The conversation quickly came to a close as the teacher came in introducing himself and their first English class was more of an introduction game than an actual class. John found out the girl was Rose Lalonde, and that she had two brothers, one the year above them, the other had graduated. The teacher had admitted he couldn't remember teaching any other Lalonde's, to which she had stated that they kept their father's name of Strider. He did seem to know the boys as a vein in his neck had started to pulse, which made John very curious about Rose's brothers, if it caused that reaction in a seemingly friendly and pleasant teacher.

The rest of the class went well and soon the day had brought the lunch bell. If he hadn't been so excited at the prospect of exploring the school, he would have asked to have lunch with Rose, as he found her very amusing, and she seemed to find him very interesting as well. Instead however he chose to explore the school campus, knowing he would have more than enough classes with her. After lunch classes resumed the day continued to be interesting and funny. Rose and John agreed to exchange email addresses so they could add each other to the instant message client Pesterchum.

John found himself out in an open expanse that looked like a giant chess board. Looking down at himself, he found he was wearing a strange blue outfit, with some form of wave shape on his chest. As he looked at his outfit, he realised that his skin no longer had it's normal pink tint to it. It was pure white, which he found this both strange yet amazing. As he inspected himself, he could feel the wind play with his hair, and it felt not only familiar but also like the wind knew him and was greeting him.

It was when the wind died that John felt the need to look up off in the distance he saw a huddled shape, like a group of people, one much taller than the others. He squinted to see if he could make out any details and it was then that one started move towards him. The figure had a determined stance and was leaning forward slightly. After a moment the figure became clear.

They were wearing all brown, with a hood raised, covering most of their face, there was a set scowl on the lips and the skin was grey. Small rounded horns protruded from the the hood, and their chest had what looked like a weeping slash on it. John opened his mouth to ask if they were okay.

Nothing.

He could feel himself speak, but he couldn't hear himself speak. The one approaching him didn't seem to hear him either. Closer now, John was pretty sure whoever it was, that they were a guy. The grey skinned, horned person raised his hand in the air and with a shock of light a sickle appeared in his hand. He ran at John, who took a step back.

He saw him yell something, but couldn't hear him. As the sickle came down to strike him he threw his hands up for protection.

John sat up sharply in bed panting, looking wildly around. He was back in his room, in his pajamas. Looking down his arms looked on the paler side of pink in the dim light afforded him by the full moon trying to get in around his curtains. Running a hand through his hair he laughed to himself.

"That was a crazy dream"

He said to himself more than anyone in particular, seeing as he was the only one in his room besides his computer and old toy box. Shaking his head he took a drink of water from the glass beside his bed, then rolled onto his side and falling asleep quickly, as if he and never dreamt of the scene that startled him awake.

Outside a white dog sat by the letterbox, staring up at the second floor of the Egbert's family home. Standing it shook out its fur and started to trot away. Then suddenly, it disappeared into thin air.


	3. How Did This Happen

It had been a week since John had his strange dream, and in all honesty he had forgotten about it. It hadn't happened again, and really as dreams went it wasn't as weird as it could have been.

Having lunch with Rose had become a permanent thing and more often than not, Rose's brother Dave would end up eating with them. John found him to be more than just a little cool and uncommonly funny with his constant irony and sarcasm. On occasion John even considered the older boy very deep with some of the things he would say, which he ultimately found weird as Rose had told him he never paid attention in class and was always trying to dodge detentions for his sarcasm, however the teachers called it 'being a smartass'.

"I thought it would be prudent to inform you, that I saw our dear brother skulking about your door today, before I went down to breakfast."

John found it amazing how eloquent and yet conversational Rose always sounded. It was almost as if he expected her to admit she was really a princess, or at least a multi-billion dollar heiress.

"What? Really? Well shit, you couldn't have maybe mentioned this sooner? Like in the car, or you know, before we left the house."

"I could have, yes. It would have been very simple to tell you. However, I've noticed that whenever he is actually awake in the morning, it's only ever to train you for whatever perceived evils he has going on at the forefront of his mind. Shouldn't you be used to it by now?"

"Yeah, about that. He's never given me any kind of straight answer about pulling all that 'Be a Man' shit on me. But you, a prime Mulan candidate, he doesn't even bother with."

"Putting aside that possible attempt to suggest I could easily pull off looking like a man. I can tell you that he has tried, I think after looking through my psychology journals, however, he feels I'm more than able to protect myself."

"Well, shit."

John sat, watching the pair interact with each other, and couldn't help but think it was great how quickly they would retort to each other's comments. He wondered idly if all siblings were like that.

Lunch had continued on and John was attempting to combat Dave in a rap battle as Rose looked on with great amusement. Dave slaughtered John, who had no previous experience with rap battles but still managed to find it fun, even if it was just because he was laughing at Dave's attempts to 'burn' him through rhyme.

Just as Rose had interjected to suggest that the blood bath of rap proportions should end, a sparrow dove at John, making him duck a few times before it flew off in frustration.

"Huh, well that was weird."

Rose and Dave nodded in agreement, before looking around as the school grounds started to become a chorus of surprised yelps and angry shouts. There were several birds of different species that had decided to attack students, and from the looks of it the number of birds was growing.

"This is all starting to get a little too Hitchcock for my liking."

Dave had raised both eyebrows at the scene unfolding around them; Rose seemed unenthused.

"Maybe we should go inside, I don't particularly wish to deal with mad bird flu."

"Really? This is mad bird flu?"

John asked Rose, who shared a look with her brother.

"Come on Egderp, let's do as the lady says before a Blue Jay makes a home in your hair."

Getting up from their bench, the trio started to make their way into the main building.

As they went, they noticed many of the students were starting to drop as the bird attacks continued, like they were suddenly tired. John slowed his pace a little, looking at those who had just dropped to the ground as everyone else tried to get away from the birds.

He turned back quickly as he heard Dave exclaim his sister's name. He saw Rose go limp in Dave's arms as he swatted at the crow who had attacked them.

"John, stop fucking about and come on, before we all dirt nap!"

Dave scooped his sister up and ran through the school's doors. John was just about to follow when he was grabbed from behind and pulled into the bushes that lined the building walls. He yelped in surprise and turned to look at his kidnapper.

He stared.

A white dog stood before him, sitting as it tilted its head before sitting back on its haunches. John looked hard at the dog's face, but he couldn't seem to make out any features.

"Uh... Hi?"

The dog's ear twitched, and it looked out of the bushes towards the growing cloud of birds then back at John, then flicked its head towards the birds as if suggesting he go out there.

"Yeah, there's lots of birds out there, huh. Why don't you have , you know, any eyes... Or a nose?"

John assumed the dog gave him another long stare; it felt like the look that Rose and Dave had taken to giving to him when he seemed to miss the point on something.

"I'm sorry, it's just... Well, you're a dog. I don't know what you're trying to say"

The dog seemed to heave a great sigh, then stood. In front of John's face something started to appear; as it became solid, John saw it was a circular silver pendant, with a green Spirographed image on the front. The back had a blue wave symbol. John felt the wave seemed familiar to him. It shimmered for the teen who stared at it with surprise and a confused excitement.

"Hey, wow. How did you do that? Did you even do this? Would it be... For me?"

As John asked the last question he started to reach out to the pendant. The dog's ears pitched straight at the boy intently. His fingers curled around the silver floating in front of him, his eyes wide with curiosity.

The world went white, he was all alone. No dog, no hedge, no school, Dave or Rose. The pendant shone in his hand, and before he had a chance close his eyes against the brightness he heard a phrase in his head. It sounded insistent, like it needed to be said.

"Okay, um. Hail the heir!"

His skin suddenly felt warm, a warmth he could only describe as glowing. The light swelled again, causing John to close his eyes tightly and shield his face.

Then the world came back. Looking down, he suddenly remembered his dream. His skin was pure white, he was wearing a blue hooded shirt with a wave symbol on it. His trousers were blue too. His gaze returned to the dog, who like before just looked at him.

"Wow! This is almost like that dream I had."

The dog came close, as if it was going to sniff him. Instead, the dog jumped up and pushed john out of the hedge and into the open for the birds to see. The now pure white boy sounded surprised and stumbled about until he regained his bearings.

The birds weren't the only ones who saw John emerging from the bushes.

From the top of a distant building they watched. Fidgeting nervously, biting their lips. Standing all alone was a figure also in blue, bearing a resemblance to a character from children's stories. The only difference was that he was grey, with a pair of large and long orange and yellow horns.

"Um... That isn't meant to happen is it?"

There was a shimmer behind the figure, it approached the ledge and looked at the boy below.

"Well, congratulations..."

The newly arrived figure said, causing the one in blue to give a slightly hopeful smile.

"You have successfully managed to create enough trouble to summon an Earth hero, you useless fuck."

"I...Uh? I what? ...How?"

He seemed to come over more nervous than he had been originally. The other, who was dressed in brown, snapped his head to face him while pointing to the so-called hero.

"Your fucking leeching's been so obvious that he's been summoned, you dripping nook! Because of you the Heir of Breath is here. I hope you're fucking pleased with yourself!"


	4. Meeting of Breaths

There was a shimmer behind the figure; it approached the ledge and looked at the boy below.

Well, congratulations...

The newly arrived figure said, causing the one in blue to give a slightly hopeful smile.

You have successfully managed to create enough trouble to summon an Earth hero, you useless fuck.

I...Uh? I what? ...How?

He seemed to come over more nervous than he had been originally. The other, who was dressed in brown, snapped his head to face him while pointing to the so-called hero.

Your fucking leeching s been so obvious that he s been summoned, you dripping nook! Because of you, the Heir of Breath is here. I hope you re fucking pleased with yourself!

...Heir of Breath? But, I didn t mean to... I... Was.. uh, only doing what I was told.

The large-horned, and grey boy looked over at the small-horned, and equally as grey boy with great worry etched on his face.

Um.. K-Knight? How did you know he s the Heir of Breath

The one called Knight grabbed the front of the other s shirt and pulled him in close.

Because, you weak-eared pathetic waste of material and space, I listen to the fucking empress when she fucking speaks. She stated that in the Scratch Codex the leader of the Hero s of Earth will be the Heir. So not only did you find a hero, you found their god damn leader.

The Knight never shouted, he didn t need too, he always spoke in an authoritative tone. However, the way his companion reacted, The Knight s yelling at him would have been less intimidating.

Ah... Yeah, that would make sense... But, uh, how do you know he s the heir of breath?

The knight gave him a flat stare, as if wondering how the other was so stupid.

Well I don t have a fucking clue. Why don t you tell me...

The Knight pushed him back roughly, pointing to the others chest.

...Page of Breath.

The Page looked down at his shirt; just like the earth hero below, his blue clothes held the image of a wave, a swirling of air.

...O-Oh...

How the fuck you made it out of the caves is a source of great fucking confusion. You can t fight for a fucking damn, and whenever you need to use your spine, it always seems to conveniently go off for a fucking jog or something. You better fix this shit or you are going to be the one to tell the empress that your pathetic attempt at a blood drain has just caught the attention of this planet s heroes. I m sure she ll swoon and beg you for a quadrant... You know. That or she ll have our Heir deliver your head to her on a serving plate of precious metal. She might even give it to the Bard as a gift. Which I m sure you ll fucking love.

The Knight never gave the Page a chance to reply. He just shimmered out. The Page stood there for a few minutes, looking like he might faint.

John stood still as the birds that surrounded him scrutinised him with their small black eyes. Those that weren t already in the air suddenly took flight. With all the remaining students as safely indoors as they could be, the birds now only had one remaining target. And that target was John.

He looked around for the mysterious white dog, not that the boy s eyes could penetrate the thick foliage of the hedge out of which he d been so roughly shoved, though he could only guess the strange animal was still in there. He suddenly realised that he was in a great amount of trouble, and he looked around wildly to see if he could find somewhere to hide or even a stick to keep the birds back.

As the thought of a stick to fend off the birds came to mind, his right hand suddenly felt heavy. Looking down he found there was a long handled double sided hammer in his grasp. The hammers themselves looked like they were spring loaded, and on the top of the hammer was some kind of green ghost, similar to one he used to wear on his shirt in grade school.

John was getting the feeling that things where starting to fall into place and he had no say in the matter, so he decided to go with it and lifted his arm, letting his body do what it seemed to really want to do.

Once at its peak, John took the hammer in both hands and brought it down heavily in front of him.

Pogo lock!

He felt the hammer hit something solid, but when he tried to see what he had hit, there was nothing.  
>He had struck solid air. But something was different, it was almost like everything was darker. And all the birds hung in the hair, not flying, just frozen in the air. Looking closely he could see that the birds could at least move their heads; whatever it was that he had done, it had just held the birds in place so they couldn t leave their position. John regarded the weapon in his hands.<p>

Wow, well that s just neat. You re going to be pretty handy to me, little hammer thing.

In his excitement, John made an attempt twirl the hammer. He forgot that the hammer end would be weighted and dropped it. As it hit the ground, the spring coiled and caused the hammer to bounce up two feet into the air. Using the momentum, the newly realised Heir of Breath snatched up the hammer before it descended, and whooped.

Well that was cool!

He looked at the hammer, giving it a proper look as a raven cawed loudly in possible frustration, causing the hero to jump.

Oh, yeah. I should do something about you guys. But... What?

Walking up to the closest bird, a blue jay, he watched it as it stared at him. Curiously he poked at it and the bird seemed to become dislodged from its small inch of air. It dropped a foot before managing to take flight, getting some altitude before diving at John.

Without thinking, and not wanting whatever happened to Rose to happen to him, the teen swung the hammer at the bird reflexively. He never hit the bird however; he opened his eyes when he realised that his swing never connected, in an attempt to look to see what angle the bird would come at him next. All he saw was the bird flying away in a terrified manner.

Hey, you... Uh... Look, you shouldn t try to hurt feather beasts... It s not nice, they can t...Uh... help it... Not... Not that you knew or anything.

Off to one side stood the voice s owner. John turned to look at him, his eyes widening at him. Aside from the grey skin, pointed ears and giant horns, he couldn t help but notice that under his little hat the other being had a chocolate coloured Mohawk going on as well as intricately-patterned brown translucent wings.

Uh. Hey. Are you Peter Pan?

Who?

You look like Peter Pan. But in blue.

I look like Pupa Pan?

The page looked down at himself eagerly, though he couldn t see the connection.

Not Pupa, Peter... I guess you don t know him, well maybe you aren t, Peter Pan didn t have. What are you?

Once again, John failed to properly realise the situation he was in, his naturally friendly nature getting in the way of caution and proper Hero-Nemesis procedures. Due to this, the Page stared at him nervously for a moment.

I... Uh... Um, well... I m a troll.

Troll, huh? So you live under bridges and eat goats?

Goats? Why... Wou-... Would I live... Uh... Under a bridge?

Wow, you don t even know that? Are you like an alien or something?

John laughed at the thought, but soon stopped when the troll seemed to fidget nervously, glancing around and fumbling over his words, unable to make a complete sentence. John got the feeling that he was trying to deny the alien claim but just couldn t actually make it sound convincing in his own head.

Wait, so you re actually an alien? Well that s kinda cool, also kinda makes sense with how you look

You... You aren t... Uh... Scared that... That I m an.. A-Alien?

John gave his signature friendly but incredibly dorky grin.

Well, my day s already been pretty weird, with crazy birds and white eyeless dogs. So some bull-horned alien isn t all that crazy right now. So, did you come to help me with the evil birds?

They re not evil! Uh.. I Er... I mean... No, I m not... That is... I have them... You know.. Under my control?

The troll began to fidget again.

Wait, so you made them attack Rose and the others?

The alien started looking very unsure of himself and glanced around as if hoping someone he knew had shown up to help him. No one had.

Why would you do that? Why would you even need to do it? Do you hate kids?

No! I... Well, I find you.. Uh.. Interesting... But.. I was... Uh... Er... O-Orde-

There was a shimmer just off to the Page s side. From what John could tell, this was another troll, in red. The human noticed that like himself and the other troll, this troll had a marking on their chest, however it was a gear and not the wave that the other two had. Wings also sprouted from their back which bore markings just as detailed as the troll in blue. However, her wings matched her outfit, whereas the first trolls were brown. Not only that, but her horns were more like ram horns than the other troll s longhorn cattle look.

Hello.

The first troll stared, as if he had never been expecting anyone to show up, John just tilted his head curiously for a second then smiled.

Hi there!

...Uh... Maid? ...Wh-

The Maid turned away from John, her even expression seemingly bearing down on the troll who had started talking to her.

I believe it s time that we should now leave, Page. We have important things to attend to, and at this point in time. Informing this human hero as to our existence would be inadvisable.

John watched as the other troll began to fidget and look very worried, before giving a look of defeat and giving a nod to Maid as his shoulders sank.

...Well... You re right... Maybe we should... Uh... Go... I guess?

The human boy, while unsure of what was going on, felt a little sad that the alien troll had to go.

Oh, well. Hey, if you have to go, that kinda sucks. But I hope I see you again... Page? And Maid!

The Page gave a weak and uncertain smile to the boy before shimmering out of sight. The maid then finally turned to the dark-haired boy, giving him a small polite bow.

In the future, it would be wise for you to not be so friendly with us. We are your opponents.

And giving John no time to question her, the maid, too, shimmered out. Within the same moment of the maid leaving all the birds created a deafening and terrified chorus. Whatever hold the trolls had on the birds had obviously stopped; John slapped his hands over his hooded ears and scrunched up his face.

"How do I make this... Oh! Cease!"

At his order the school grounds brightened and the birds dropped from where they were held, all of them immediately taking flight and getting away from the area as quickly as possible. The one student attacked by birds who hadn't been picked up by friends still remained on the ground. John looked around to see if he could help; However, as he turned, he saw the white dog again. It nodded at him, the nod seeming to bring John back to normal. The teen opened his mouth to say thanks, but instead passed out. 


End file.
